


Knock, Breathe, Shine

by trill_gutterbug



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, that's it that's the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 12:01:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17425502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trill_gutterbug/pseuds/trill_gutterbug
Summary: Lew waited, drifting between sleep and the misery of consciousness, for Dick to jostle or wallop him, maybe tickle his ear. Instead, there was some shuffling and rustling, the covers lifting, and Dick slid in behind him.





	Knock, Breathe, Shine

**Author's Note:**

> Hmmm… pls enjoy some shameless and unsubtle projection by Yours Truly, because I, like Lewis Nixon, am a touchstarved alcoholic with self worth issues who is madly in love with Dick Winters. 
> 
> Title from John Donne because I am also predictable.

Lewis didn’t notice Dick leave, but he noticed him come back. A tread in the hall, something heard more in dream than wakefulness, and the door clicking open. Lew stirred enough to figure out who it was and to squeeze his eyes tighter in anticipation of Dick clapping his hands, or slapping Lew’s hip, or whistling that awful birdsong tune he liked to annoy Lew out of bed with. But none of those things came, and Lew was already sinking back to sleep when the bed dipped behind him.

He slept, when afforded the luxury, on his stomach, with his top leg drawn up and his arms wrapped around his pillow. If circumstances were generous, he’d tuck a second pillow against his chest, where he always liked to cuddle something warm and soft - a dog, a lover, a goosedown cushion. Today, in this extremely extravagant, extremely uninhabited villa in Nazi-unoccupied Berchtesgaden, he had not only a pillow beneath his head and another against his chest, but a third under his thigh, and a fourth he’d pushed off the bed during the night when it gave him a crick.

He waited, drifting between sleep and the misery of consciousness, for Dick to jostle or wallop him, maybe tickle his ear. Instead, there was some shuffling and rustling, the covers lifting, and Dick slid in behind him. Lewis had gone to bed in nothing but his skivvies, and now the duvet was tangled down around his waist. The touch of Dick’s cold wet head between his bare shoulder blades nearly launched him upright. It would have, were he a greater man, or a less hungover one.

He grunted. “‘S matta w’you,” he mumbled into the pillow.

Dick turned his head so Lew could feel the smile pressed into his spine. “Sorry,” Dick said, not sounding it. “I just had a shower.”

Lew groaned. Dick had almost certainly gotten out of bed hours ago, jogged three times around the whole village, done two hundred pushups, eaten a wholesome and fibrous breakfast, scrubbed efficiently beneath a cold shower, and was here now to guilt Lew into joining the land of the living before noon.

But Dick didn’t say anything about that. He curled up against Lew’s back, tucking his face between the side of Lew’s neck and his upraised bicep, and slid an arm over him. Lew might have felt maudlin at the tenderness, had he been more awake. Dick slung a leg overtop Lew’s too, pinning him into the thick soft mattress. Lew felt Dick’s cold hair starting to warm, dripping onto Lew’s arm, but he was already dozing off.

Distantly, he heard Dick whisper, “I love you,” into the crook of his neck, the way he always said it: a little bashful, quiet, sideways, so that Lew had to strain to hear it. Not, Lew thought, because Dick was afraid to say it, but because he didn’t want to insist by implication that Lew respond in kind. But Lew always did, instantly, hungrily. Even now, when he still couldn’t quite make his mouth form words, he fumbled for Dick’s hand on his stomach. He drew it up against his chest, between himself and the pillow, and knotted their fingers together. He squeezed and knew Dick would know what he meant.

Eventually, when Dick started to go lax against his back and breathe heavier, Lew rolled over beneath his arm and curled tight as a pillbug into Dick’s chest. He ducked his head under Dick’s chin. Dick mumbled, but didn’t move except to squeeze Lew a little closer. Lew pressed a blind, soft kiss to the base of Dick’s throat, where his pulse beat strong and calm, and drifted back to sleep.

 

 


End file.
